Hardtalk

Hardtalk speaks to Jessye Norman, who is acknowledged as one of the greatest singers of her generation. Her voice has enthralled audiences in the world’s greatest concert halls and opera houses for decades. She was born in America’s segregated South with a talent that transcended barriers. Has her success helped to tear those barriers down?

Stephen Sackur speaks to former Conservative cabinet minister, Lord Heseltine. The Scottish people voted 'No' to independence, but they may just have changed British politics forever. More powers are to be handed to the Scottish Parliament and now English MPs want their own form of self-determination. Right across this supposedly United Kingdom, alienation from the Westminster status quo is fuelling calls for reform.

The size and capacity of the human brain distinguishes us from all other forms of life on earth, but how well do we really understand the functioning of our brains? HARDtalk speaks to Susan Greenfield, who carved out a reputation as a leader in the study of degenerative brain diseases. Lately though she's focused her attention on the impact of 21st century digital technologies on brain development. She believes our screen habits could be doing us damage, but is her warning based on sound science?

Twelve years ago the International Criminal Court was set up to be the scourge of war criminals and mass killers everywhere - there would be no more impunity for the worst of crimes. How does the court's record stack up against that grand ambition? Thus far all of its cases have come from Africa, and just two convictions have been handed down from the Hague. HARDtalk speaks to Luis Moreno-Ocampo, who was the ICC's chief prosecutor for a decade. Why has the court failed to deliver on its promise?

Is the Eurozone economy turning Japanese? Flat-lining growth, depressed prices and a general air of economic despondency are surely warning signs of a Japanese-style prolonged stagnation. Can Europe's economic policymakers turn things around? HARDtalk speaks to Peter Bofinger, who sits on Germany’s Council of Economic Experts - is the dominance of Germany's economic model now Europe's biggest problem?

Can we afford the world's super-rich and what have they ever done for us? HARDtalk speaks to a leading British social thinker - Professor Danny Dorling of Oxford University. He argues for a slow revolution against the top 1%, whom he claims are impoverishing the rest of us. If 99% of us are becoming more equal, does it really matter if a tiny minority are getting richer?

HARDtalk speaks to Chrissie Hynde, who has one of the most distinctive voices in rock music and a record of success going back to the 1980s. Her band, the Pretenders, found global success during the era of punk; 30 years on she's still making music, but is she still in love with rock n roll?

The European Union confronts a host of problems from an economic slowdown inside the Eurozone to the crisis in Ukraine. Jose Manuel Barroso has been president of the European Commission for ten years but has only two months left in the job. HARDtalk’s Zeinab Badawi talks to him by Lake Como in Italy and asks, how much of a mess is he leaving behind for his successor?

In an exclusive interview, Stephen Sackur speaks to President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, who's been in Britain to attend a summit of NATO leaders. There's a consensus view that the crisis in eastern Ukraine represents the most serious threat to Europe's security and stability since the fall of the Berlin Wall - Ukraine and Russia are just a few steps away from all-out war - but right now there are hopes of a ceasefire. So, is there a path back from the brink?

This week's Nato Summit in Wales comes against a background of escalating tensions between Russia and Nato over the conflict in Ukraine, with calls for tougher action against Moscow. How far should Nato go in protecting countries that are not members of the Alliance like Ukraine? HARDtalk speaks to President Giorgi Margvelashvili of Georgia, a country that was at war with Moscow six years ago. What's his advice to Nato?

Vladimir Putin is reported to have said he could take the Ukrainian capital Kiev in two weeks if he wanted to. As he offers increasingly brazen support to the pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine, his message to the West is clear: don't mess with Russia. HARDtalk speaks to senior Ukrainian diplomat, Olexander Scherba. Can Kiev afford to risk all-out war with Moscow?

HARDtalk speaks to Francis Fukuyama, one of America's leading political scientists who, twenty five years ago, watched the Communist bloc unravel and concluded that history had delivered a conclusive verdict - liberal democracy had vanquished its ideological rivals. How wise does that proposition sound today in Ukraine, Syria, China, or even in credit-crunched Greece? Has a quarter century of global tumult changed his mind about the end of history?

Hardtalk is in the West Bank to talk to Yasser Abed Rabbo, the Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s Executive Committee. He was a senior member of the Palestinian negotiating team in the years after the Oslo Peace Accords were signed with Israel. In wake of 50 day conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, where does the Palestinian quest for statehood stand?

It's the twenty-fifth anniversary this year of the Tianamen Square Massacre in Beijing that saw hundreds killed and many more detained. One award-winning British-Chinese writer and film-maker Xiaolu Guo was a teenager at the time. Decades earlier during the Cultural Revolution her fisherman father had spent more than ten years in correctional labour camps for painting a picture that had angered the authorities. What should the role of the artist or writer be in China today?

Do Christians have a future in the Arab world? It's a question raised with a new sense of urgency as an extraordinarily violent brand of jihadi extremism sweeps through Syria and Iraq. Tens of thousands of Christians, along with other minorities, have been forced from their homes, hundreds murdered. Right across the region Christians are fearful. HARDtalk speaks to Bishop Angaelos of the Egyptian Coptic Church about what can be done to protect the Arab Christian tradition.